


The Secret Flame

by yue_ix



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cunnilingus, F/F, Fanfiction, Half-Sibling Incest, Identity Porn, Magical Bondage, Magical Girls, Rough Oral Sex, Secret Identity, Semi-Public Sex, Superheroes, Tentacles, Under-negotiated Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 05:57:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4694648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yue_ix/pseuds/yue_ix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amber and Petal are step-sisters with too many secrets. </p><p>Amber patrols at night as the superhero Firecracker while Petal deals with evil plots as magical girl Mandrake. Their civilian selves are pulling apart even as their super powered counter identities are growing ever closer. </p><p>Can any their relationships survive the drift?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Secret Flame

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



Firecracker swings around a streetlamp and yells as she kicks a robber in the face. It sends him sprawling into the half destroyed street.

She takes a moment to make sure her cowl is holding in place, covering her hair and halfway down to her nose. Her teeth are clenched in anger but it isn't entirely because of the thieves. They're the welcome outlet for the frustration she feels about her daylight identity's step-sister, Petal.

The two of them had fought at dinner again, which was just not _them_. This wasn't the sweet Petal who she had grown closer and closer to since their parents remarried years ago. The friend who hugged her first at graduation before she even made it down the stairs. The sister who made her get up at fucking dawn to run because she was of those terrifying morning people, "for her own good".

Alright, so Amber rather appreciates the runs now, because fitness really comes in handy when you become a superhero vigilante at eighteen. However, her favorite part of that ritual had always been Petal's uncontrollable laughing snorts at Amber's bed-hair and grumpiness, and she hadn't heard them in way too long.

Petal started changing a few months ago and things haven't been the same between them. Amber had been the first to change, she knows. The kick in super-human powers was just a little too much, too quick. Despite Petal herself coming into her powers through her biological mother's magical ring, and their alter-egos becoming fast allies, their daylight selves had grown apart.

Amber became busy patrolling town every other night as Firecracker, while Petal got snared into elaborated magical plots as Mandrake. When they tried to talk shop as civilians, it was fraught with pitfalls and arguments about stupid things like environment and politics and food rations, so they just stopped. This had created a rift between them, which by mutual understanding had not carried over in costume, but was incredibly frustrating nonetheless.

At least, becoming Firecracker hs allowed her to do things she couldn't do as Amber, such as a using baddies as punching bags.

A shouted exclamation startles Firecracker out of her reverie a second before gunshot ricochets a feet away. She looks up sharply as a young woman jumps from the roof, pirouettes and lands gracefully on top of a fallen beam. The short fluttering skirt and purple hair are unmistakable.  
"I could have done without out!" Firecracker calls out, the banter easy on her lips. Mandrake is a sight for sore eyes tonight. Beautiful and willy as the plants she controls, she's gotten Firecracker out of scrapes and vice-versa often enough they are great allies by now. Insofar as allies now meant "people who do not want to discuss off-mask lives and only want to kick ass", anyway.

"Oh please, Firecracker. Like you aren't happy to see me." Mandrake winks at her, steps light over scorched remnants of the bank's exploded front. Amber can feel her face heating under her cowl.

Being Firecracker and Mandrake has also enabled them other liberties related to anonymity.

Amber is open about her sexuality with her University classmates, but her crush on Petal is _not_ something she'd ever tell anyone, least of all her step-sister herself. And yet, one night post-fight, light-headed from smoke inhalation and adrenaline, Firecracker and Mandrake had kissed.

They never talked about it, with or without masks on, but somehow by silent agreement their liaison had rocketed up the affection scale. Rare now were occasions where meeting up at night didn't end up in a fuck.

They usually try to keep the flirting at a minimum, though. Last thing they want are paparazzi chasing them down the streets and hindering their work for "lesbian supers making out" clickbait footage. Still, there's such a glorious thrill to _being public_ that neither can resist indulging on bad nights.

Firecracker opens her mouth to reply but what comes out instead is, "Watch out!"

Another bandit has stepped out with an even bigger gun.

Mandrake kicks off the ground and Firecracker rolls out of the way, ducking around a car. She breaks off its side mirror so as to glimpse behind her, and throws a ball of flames at the last remaining robbers, hoping to make them step away from the hostages. She catches one's leg, which sends him rolling around on the ground to put out the fire.

Distraction a success, the thieves are quickly caught by Mandrake's tentacles. She continues chanting to make her vines weave a cage around them while Firecracker helps the hostages get out of there.

The last one is scampering away when Firecracker hears pained noises coming from one of the cages where her last target had fallen. Judging by his unkempt hair and unbearded face, the guy is obviously a minor lackey recruited off the streets. He's clutching at his leg, which is raw and oozing underneath the burnt shreds of his pants. He scrambles back when she steps towards him, lifting his bloodied hands. "I just wanted food! They promised me food!"

Squatting down, Firecracker she can indeed recognise his face from a street corner. She gestures at Mandrake, who dissolves the vines with a whisper, letting her do her part.

Firecracker covers the guy's wound with her hands and focuses on twisting her fire so that it heals instead of destroys. "There's a food bank on Main street," she tells him. Partly because it's true, but also because that's where her and Petal volunteer every thursday nights, one of the rare activities they still share. She'd like to opportunity to follow up on this guy while under the cover of her unassuming daytime persona.

The guys nods despite clear confusion, and gets to his feet as soon as she's done, turning around and running away without questioning his luck.

Firecracker watches him go, frowning. Police sirens are closing in. She looks around at the wreck and sighs. The media will have a field trip with this again. At least, the robbers having used explosives as a dramatic entrance will make it harder to see how much of the collateral damage was caused by Firecracker herself, this time.

"That won't help him much in the long run." Mandrake breaks the silence.

That hits too close to something Petal and Amber had been arguing about today. "What will it take for you to stop being an ass?" Firecracker hisses.

Mandrake shakes her head, long purple ropes of hair whipping sharply. "Never mind. Keep your ideals! I don't want them!" She turns around and bounds up to a nearby rooftop.

Firecracker wants to tear her hair out. Why is nothing working out tonight? "Hey, Mandrake, wait up!" She jumps up a car's hood, grabs the bank's hanging sign and hoists herself up to the roof just in time to see Mandrake jumping from rooftop to rooftops a few buildings away. Firecracker sprints over, running shoes kicking up gravel, catching up several blocks later. Mandrake is dropping down between two buildings; Firecracker grabs the nearest fire exit metal rails and, thankful for her thick gloves, slides down until she touches ground.

Mandrake is standing near the entry of the dark alley, silhouetted by red and blue flashes as emergency cars blaze past.

Firecracker makes the movement of pushing hair back from her face, forgetting in the moment her hair is tucked under her cowl. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm on edge tonight. Are you alright?"

Mandrake visibly deflates. "I'm good, it's fine. It's been a long week."

Firecracker steps closer, squinting at her in the semi-dark. "Are you sure?" She reaches her, and sees for herself that Mandrake seems physically sound, despite the frown visible by the edge of her thin white mask.

Mandrake raises her eyebrows. "Yesss, I'm sure." She drawls, then tilts her head back. "Unless you want to check for yourself, Firecracker?"

The name is a reminder as much as a codeword. Firecracker ducks her head and smiles. There's comfort in familiar grounds. "I'd love that."

They kiss, teasing at first, then harder as desire flares up from within. Firecracker is more than a little wounded. Her fight with her step-sister is still going circles in her thoughts and making her angrier by how silly it seems now compared to everything else going on in the world, to the explosions and hunger and secrets hanging in the night.

Annoyed at her inability to separate her focus, Firecracker attacks Mandrake's neck with something of a growl. Mandrake lets her head fall back while her hands grip Firecracker's buttocks firmly, pressing them together. Their legs cross paths and both rub against the other's thigh. Mandrake sighs in pleasure and runs her hand up Firecracker's back. She toys with the various buttons and zippers marking Firecraker's leather top. "Aren't you a hot in there?"

"You tell me."

Mandrake's laugh is loud and nasal, startled out of her, and Amber must be truly desperate to hear it because in that instant Mandrake sounds so much like Petal that even Firecracker's heart ache. She grabs handfuls of her purple hair and pulls her in for another bruising kiss, trying to escape her guilt for thinking of another person, another context, even as she grinds herself down into the present.

Compared to Firecracker's dark leathers, Mandrake's own pale lycra costume leaves little to the imagination and provides plenty of distracting curves. Firecracker strokes her sides, thumbs rubbing circles at the base of her breasts. "What do you want?" she whispers into Mandrake's collarbone between nibbles.

Their bodies slick with sweat where exposed and hearts pounding with adrenaline, Firecracker's dirty gloved hands pull and knead Mandrake's waist.

"Make me forget me." Mandrake orders. "Rough is good."

Firecracker closes her eyes on a shiver. Her fingers dig into Mandrake's flanks, undoubtedly bruising. "I can do that."

She does.

Dropping to her leather padded knees, Firecracker ducks under Mandrake's short skirt and attached her mouth to soft inner thighs. Biting a short row up and down both sides, Firecracker catches Mandrake's translucent stockings in her incisors and gnaws until it is torn in several places. It's easy to rip off two handfuls from there, which makes the thin white fabric covering Mandrake's cunt the last obstacle to her quest. Mandrake's hands frame her cowl and pushes Firecracker's head back towards her, panting and impatient.

Ever the tease, Firecracker licks and nibbles the fabric until it's soaked just to feel a tremble in Mandrake's legs. Hooking two fingers into the bridge of the fabric, she tugs it aside and clamps her mouth over Mandrake's burning mount, tongue out and already cradling Mandrake's clit.

Mandrake curses between clenched teeth and twists, pain and pleasure raking up her slight frame like electricity. Vines and roots shoot out from the bricks surrounding them, crashing into the opposing walls, creating a private curtain around them. Several snake up Firecracker's body, securing her legs to the dirty concrete floor. A couple go up and around her hands, tying them to Mandrake's legs until she can't move away from eating out Mandrake. Her spine tingles with renewed adrenaline but she doesn't even try to pull away. She has no intention of leaving before they're done here.

Redoubling her efforts, she licks and sucks and blows hot air on Mandrake's cunt, tugging her pubic hairs, nuzzling her folds. She tortures her swollen clit, slick noises loud in their little pocket of space. Mandrake's own ragged breaths are only interrupted by deep groans and the occasionally bit off direction, " _there_ " and " _again_ "s.

She's enjoying herself, all the more for how she can feel Mandrake's reserve eroding through the pitch of her voice and the thrumming in the vines surrounding them. She slows down her licks, relaxing her jaw until she's immobile, and that's it. Mandrake breaks.

Mandrake lets out a long plaintive whine and tugs at Firecracker's head, but Firecracker resists and grins, proud of herself. She knows the moment Mandrake must look down and notice, because she curses. "Oh, fuck you, you evil, evil -" and she starts rubbing her cunt over Firecracker's face instead, dragging her labia over mouth and nose, clitoris catching on the texture of her cowl. When Firecracker still doesn't immediately move, she wails "Come on, Amber!"

Firecracker freezes up, her mouths slackening in shock and an odd sense of betrayal. Mandrake, too far gone to notice, moans in relief and ruts against her face, arching her hips and throwing her weight into it until at last she shudders and writhe. Firecracker still can't move, both from the vines and the somewhat dizzying thought that this must be what breaking the fourth wall feels like to characters in a book. She closes her eyes and grabs on to the present, sound, taste and smell coming back to her. Above and around her, where she had forced herself just to see her ally Mandrake, now stands her step-sister Petal. It's _her_ flowery panties she ripped, it's _her_ come on Firecracker's tongue.

Inside her costume, Amber's heart thuds in her ribcage, wanting out even as it burns with renewed fire. She isn't sure if the flames are of lust or anger but she doesn't care.

Above, Mandrake heaves a contented sigh and relaxes back onto the brick wall behind her. The plants are letting go of Firecracker, who stumbles up to her feet. Her lower face is dripping with come and saliva. There's even some under her cowl. She removes one glove and wipes a finger under the edge of her mask. "Which one is it?"

Mandrake, who is putting herself back in order as much as she can, smiles up at her, clearly still a little dazed. "Which what?" She reaches a hand out and affectionately swipes her thumb over the bridge of Amber's - no, _Firecracker's_ \- nose, probably getting more slick off. The tenderness doesn't help none, and suddenly Firecracker decides the mask itches. It's too hot here, too silly to stand like this when they both know.

Amber snarls and rips off her cowl, shoving it up and behind where it'll look like a regular hood, freeing her short hair. "Petal. Don't play with me."

Mandrake gapes at her and takes a step back. "But-" she whispers faintly. "Amber? What? We don't..."

Amber's head is spinning. "You said my name."

Mandrake shakes her head. "No, I - " then she thinks about it and sounds a lot less certain. "Did I?"

"Yes, you did. Just… Choose." Amber gestures wildly, trying to encompass both the alley and their legs and her wet face all at once, "--which one of me am I supposed to be, here?"

"Both." Mandrake whispers. She reaches into her costume and takes out the necklace where her power ring is threaded. Tendrils of light surround her then in a flash Petal stands there, long skirt and hair billowing in a faint breeze. She looks scared in a way Mandrake never showed. "Can I have both?"

Amber's head is a puzzle with half the pieces mixed up with another puzzle. "Can we do that?"

Petal flushes hot, but she meets Amber's eyes. "We could get a place, just the two of us."

They are old enough now, and Petal will be starting university classes soon. No one will question it. It could even help with the vigilante part of their relationship. Amber breaches the space between them to stroke a strand of Petal's hair. "We can paint our room red and purple," she offers.

Relief making her boneless, Petal hides her face into Amber's neck and hugs her. "Next to the food bank? And the running tracks."

Amber wraps her arms around Petal. She feels her face relax into a real smile when Petal squeezes her tighter, even though Amber must still reek of sweat and come on leather. "Okay."

They stand together silently for a long time.

"What do we do now?" Petal finally asks.

Amber peals out of her leathery coat and stuffs the cowl and gloves into hidden pockets. She takes her step-sister's hand, tugs her out of the alley and into the streetlamp carefully. "Now we go home and talk. As ourselves."

"Sisters?" Petal asks.

"Sisters." Amber confirms. "Super teammates. Future co-leaders of the fight against world hunger."

The grin that blossoms over Petal's face is like a sunrise in spring. "I'm in."

 

the end


End file.
